Occupied Balochistan:Doctors at all state-run hospitals in the provincial capital continued their strike for the sixth consecutive day on Friday to protest against the target killing of Dr Mazar Baloch, President of Pakistan Medical Association (PMA).

The Outdoor Patient Departments (OPDs) at the Provincial Sandeman Hospital, Bolan Medical Complex (BMC), Helper Eye Hospital and Fatima Jinnah TB Sanatorium remained closed with no doctors attending the patients. PMA General Secretary Dr Faez Hashmi said that the doctors would intensify their protest if progress was not made in the investigation.''Doctors are attending emergency cases,he told newsmen over the phone.''We are on strike for the past six days demanding substantial progress in the investigations, but no serious efforts on the part of law enforcement agencies have been made.''

The protesting doctors said that five doctors had so far been targeted and killed over the past two years and that two doctors had been listed as missing for more than a year. ''If doctors continue to be targeted, how can they perform their duties?'' they asked.

Patients faced serious trouble as doctors were not present at OPDs to provide medical assistance.''Hundreds of patients, the overwhelming majority of whom are poor and came here from remote areas, were refused medical help. They cannot afford the charges of private doctors, thus they come daily in the hope that they will get treatment,'' an official of BMC said. Similarly, dozens of patients were seen waiting for treatment at the Provincial Sandeman Hospital.